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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 - May 19, 1994) was the 37th First Lady of the United States. Serving from January 1961 to November 1963, Kennedy saw a restoration of the White House and had a televised tour of the residence aired during the second year of her tenure. Onassis was the elder daughter of John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee. Her parents divorced in 1940. She graduated from George Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She went on to work as an Inquiring Photographer for the Washington Times-Herald. Jacqueline wed John F. Kennedy in 1953. They had four children, two of which died in infancy. She became involved in his successful presidential campaign in 1960. On November 22, 1963, she was riding with her husband in a motorcade when his assassination took place. Following his funeral three days later, she and her children withdrew from public view and she married Aristotle Onassis five years later in 1968. Onassis had a career as a book editor for the last two decades of her life. Remembered for her contributions to the arts, preservation of historic architecture, her style, elegance and grace, she was a fashion icon. The clothing she wore at the time of her husband's death, that of a famous ensemble of pink Chanel suit and matching pillbox hat have become symbolic of the assassination and one of the lasting images of the 1960s. She remains one of the most popular First Ladies. Early life .]] Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929 in Southampton, New York to John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee at Southampton Hospital. She was named after her father. Bouvier developed a love of horse riding from an early age, as she was able to balance herself atop a horse from age 2. This was an interest shared by both of her parents who can be credited with having prompted her interest. Bouvier was eleven when her mother married Hugh D. Auchincloss in June 1942. She and her sister did not attend the ceremony due to the wedding being arranged quickly and "wartime travel restrictions." She had a hard time fitting into the new family initially, attributing this to being the child of divorced parents and being Catholic in an environment with people that were not of the same religion. Jacqueline had a dislike for Franklin D. Roosevelt due to her father's negative words about the president during his tenure. Following Roosevelt passing away into his fourth term, Jacqueline realized that her negative feelings toward the president were a result of her father's influence and in writing expressed concern for what would becoming of the country after his death. Jacqueline's opinions on Roosevelt's successor Harry S. Truman are unknown though she would met him later in life as First Lady, along with Truman's successor Dwight D. Eisenhower. Relationship with father Jacqueline greatly resembled her father, idolizing him as well. He adored her and said she was the most beautiful daughter a man could have. During the early years of Janet's marriage to Hugh D. Auchincloss, her father began to worry that he was losing her. During one of her stays at his residence, she discovered that he had retained several images of her in her absence, which biographer Leaming interpreted as him showing that he was bothered with not being able to be around her as often. Though she greatly admired him, Jacqueline disapproved of the philandering her father sustained during the marriage to her mother and her seeing of his infidelity has been attributed to her later views on married men and extramarital relationships, a consensus forming that she learned to tolerate cheating. Engagement to Husted She was engaged to John W. Husted, Jr. for three months while being a "Inquiring Photographer" for The Washington Times-Herald. She was required by the position to pose witty questions to random individuals on the street. Notably, she interviewed Tricia Nixon shortly after her father Richard Nixon was elected vice president in the 1952 presidential election, asking the six-year-old what she thought of her father's victory. She and Husted only knew each other for a month before becoming engaged, leading to the relationship not being taken seriously by her editor at the time. Jacqueline met John F. Kennedy during her relationship with Husted and in becoming attracted to the ambitious representative, she became disillusioned with her engagement and broke it off, though it was said Husted never got over her and felt that Kennedy had stolen her from him. Kennedy marriage Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy belonged to the same social group, being introduced to each other in May 1952 by Charles L. Bartlett during a dinner party.Harris, Bill; Ross, Laura (2009). The First Ladies Fact Book – The Childhoods, Courtships, Marriages, Campaigns, Accomplishments, and Legacies of Every First Lady from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. New York City: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-57912-809-8. Bouvier took interest in Kennedy based on his physical appearance and mannerisms such as his charm and wit, the two being alike in their religion of Roman Catholicism, writing, being entertained in reading and living abroad at some point or another.O'Brien, Michael (2006). John F. Kennedy: A Biography. St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 265–266. The meeting came at a time when JFK was running for a first term in the U.S. Senate, but after he won the election that coming November, he gave more attention to the relationship and in developing feelings for her, proposed."Senator Kennedy to marry in fall". The New York Times. June 25, 1953. p. 31. Bouvier gave consideration to the idea, initially having to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London, staying there for two weeks before donating the same amount of time to a trip in Paris. Bouvier returned to the US afterward, accepting the proposal after meeting JFK in an airport, resigning from her job the following day.Harris, p. 548-549. Her engagement to Kennedy was announced on June 25, 1953. Bouvier married Kennedy on September 12, 1953. Bouvier and Kennedy honeymooned in Acapulco prior to finding a home in Hickory Hill.Smith, Sally Bedell (2004). Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House. ISBN 978-0-375-50449-5. Over a year into their marriage, in 1955, Jacqueline suffered a miscarriage and in August 1956 gave birth to a stillborn daughter the couple planned to name Arabella. Her third pregnancy was in 1957 when she gave birth to a second daughter, Caroline. Jacqueline's father died in August 1957. Jacqueline rushed to see him in the hospital the day of his death, August 3, along with her husband. However, he had passed away by the time the pair arrived. In April 1958, Kennedy appeared on the cover of Life magazine with her husband and daughter.Leaming (2014), p. 90. This came at a time where her husband was running for a second term in the United States Senate, one which he was elected to in November of that year. She was credited by her husband with playing a significant role in his success in being reelected.Hunt, Amber; Batcher, David (2014). Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America's Most Public Family. Lyons Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0762796342."Jackie Kennedy’s Campaign Ad Appearance, before the 1960 Presidential Election". iagreetosee.com. Arthur M. Schlesinger met Kennedy in July 1959 at the Kennedy Compound, located in Hyannis Port, where he was able to have his first dialogue with her and found her to be impressive in her speech.Schlesinger, p. 17. Kennedy's husband was busy traveling across fourteen states, taking breaks in-between to spend time with the couple's daughter. Jacqueline advised him on his touring, well-aware that he was preparing for a presidential campaign the following year.Spoto, p. 146. First Lady of the United States Presidential campaign Her husband announced his candidacy for President of the United States in January 1960. He then launched a nationwide campaign, after which Jacqueline soon learned she was pregnant. This hampered her plans to have an active role, as she had been advised by doctors to stay at home due to her previous difficult pregnancies. Kennedy was active in her husband's campaign from Georgetown by being involved with the media. She made a few rare personal appearances as well. Jacqueline could be heard during the campaign speaking in Italian and Polish, already being fluent in Spanish and French. Kennedy managed a column called Campaign Wife throughout the campaign. At the time she was critiqued by critics for her wearing of clothing that was not American in nature, prompting her to write in Campaign Wife regarding the relevancy of her spending habits and how it would effect her husband's ability to govern. JFK, though well-aware of this critiques, never asked Jacqueline to change herself to better his political ambitions. She had an encounter with Jimmy Hoffa when journeying to Louisiana after arriving at a airport. Hoffa's meeting with her has had interpretations of being an attempt by the him to inform her husband that he was able to get to his wife with ease and to intimidate him with this information. Her husband won the election against Richard Nixon narrowly on November 8, 1960. She gave birth to the couple's first son, John F. Kennedy, Jr., two weeks later on November 25. Kennedy had beforehand jokingly questioned when inauguration day was when asked if the child was due before the inaugural. Her husband's swearing in on January 20, 1961 made Kennedy the third youngest First Lady of the United States in history. She was behind both Frances Folsom Cleveland and Julia Gardiner Taylor, who were 21 and 24 at the time they became First Lady. Prior to the inauguration of her husband, she came to the White House and was shown around by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, who reportedly did not like her. Jacqueline was still ill from her pregnancy and the trip resulted in her being sicker, Mamie Eisenhower claiming that she never asked for a chair and as a result was never given one by her. White House restoration Her first major act as First Lady was restoring the White House. She was dismayed to find little historic significance in the house during her pre-inauguration tour of the White House, the rooms in particular being furnished with pieces that were both undistinguished and in her view lacked a sense of history. She started trying to return the house to a historical living space on her first day in residence and was helped by Sister Parish in making the family quarters attractive and suitable for family life. When she almost exhausted the funds appropriated for the effort, Kennedy created a fine arts committee to both oversee and fund the restoration process and asked for the advice of early American furniture expert Henry du Pont. Kennedy had a tour of the White House with Charles Collingwood of CBS News on February 14, 1962. She oversaw the redesigning of the White House Rose Garden and the East Garden which was named after her following her husband's assassination while working with Rachel Lambert Mellon. Her status as a celebrity and popular public figure made the tour of the White House desirable among American viewers, along with the rest of the world. The tour would be filmed and distributed among 106 countries due to the great interest in seeing the film. This was further evident on her trip to Paris with Time magazine referring to her husband as "that fellow who came with her." President Kennedy joked, "I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris — and I have enjoyed it!" First Lady Laura Bush, one of Kennedy's successors, wrote that she left behind a rich legacy in reforming the White House. Indeed, much commentary was given in subsequent years to her restoration of the executive mansion. Civil rights Jacqueline Kennedy was known to have developed a negative opinion of Martin Luther King, Jr. after the assassination of her husband when J. Edgar Hoover claimed to Robert F. Kennedy that King had attempted to set up a sexual meeting with women. Kennedy relayed this claim back to her and in doing so, caused Jacqueline to admit in an interview that she could not look at an image with King without believing that he was terrible. Jesse Jackson commented that though Jacqueline had a negative opinion of King from this, learning that she felt this way about him did not change his perception of her. Though Caucasian, Jacqueline has in recent years been subject to speculation of African-American ancestry due to potential ties her family may have had with Anthony van Salee. This has led to claims that Michelle Obama, the wife of Barack Obama that became First Lady in 2009 after he was elected the previous year and thus became the first confirmed African-American First Lady, was not in fact the first African-American woman to gain the position. Jacqueline in her lifetime denied having ties to blacks that were familial, insisting that her ancestors were Jewish. Overall themes She had an appeal amongst young women, her appearance being one that was desired as a fashion style in the early 1960s. Kennedy would never retain this much influence on fashion in her life as she did as First Lady, a position that elevated her to the national scene and allowed her to become the role model for women that she did from an aesthetic standpoint. Kennedy was noted as being much younger than her last few predecessors, notably concurrent with JFK's youthful appeal. She proved to be popular not just for her fashion but for her overall mysterious yet candid character, one that appeared to be approachable and at the same time detached. She channeled a mystique; Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, the daughter of then Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, thought of Jacqueline as larger than life. Kennedy gave special attention to restoring the White House, noting during a 1962 appearance that there was hardly anything there prior to the Kennedy administration that had been created before 1902. The restoration became the overarching event of her tenure, one for which she is remembered as it highlighted her tastes. Kennedy had indicated interest in going about restoring the White House during the campaign trail with no record of reaction to the announcement being recorded. However, reception to her restoration at the time of the Kennedy presidency is known and she was widely praised then and in the decades since. Next to her fashionable appearances, it is likely what she is known for. Family life in the White House.|thumb]] As First Lady, tackling multiple projects, she was unable to always be attentive to her children, similarly to President Kennedy. For this reason, the couple employed a family nanny. Jacqueline got along well with the nanny until her husband's assassination, where the nanny revealed the president's death to the children, conflicting with Jacqueline's wishes as she wanted to do so, creating conflict between Kennedy and the nanny. Kennedy sought to keep her children away from publicity as she did herself. Thanks to one of her trips away from the White House, President Kennedy was able to get photographs with both of his children, going against her back. Retrospectively, as this was shortly before his assassination, Jacqueline admitted that the photos were priceless.John F. Kennedy Jr. A&E biography Historic events Kennedy attended the inaugural of her husband, wearing a light colored suit with dark boots and sitting several feet away from him as he addressed the nation. Kennedy commented during an interview that she was up for consideration by her husband to leave America if the Cuban Missile Crisis became too dangerous, though she also said that she declined leaving the country since, as she claimed to have told him, she wanted to pass away with him and the children who both joined her in wanting to be by President Kennedy's side. Kennedy's whereabouts or opinions on the March on Washington are unknown, though her opinions on Martin Luther King, Jr., who played a prominent role in arranging the event, are. Death of second son She became pregnant again in early 1963. She curtailed her official duties and spent most of the summer at the Kennedys' rented home on Squwa Island. There she went into preterm labor on August 7, 1963, giving birth to a second son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy five and a half weeks prematurely. He died two days after birth on August 9. Neither of his lungs were fully developed and he died at Boston Children's Hospital. Jacqueline entered depression after the passing of her son, though the death seemed to have a positive impact on her husband. Clint Hill remembered an intimacy between her and her husband that was not as evident in their prior public appearances. Aristotle Onassis invited her to join him on his yacht, outside of the United States. Her husband had reservations about Jacqueline attending the trip, but relented once he concluded that she could possibly benefit from being away form a while. The trip caused a stir among Republicans in Congress who believed that Jacqueline should not have had a trip outside of the United States. President Kennedy took much of the criticism while Jacqueline was away and soon became disillusioned with her being away, leading him to request she return which she did in mid-October 1963. Though she regretted being away, she understood why she was gone, in her own words, having melancholy after the death of her fourth child. Assassination of John F. Kennedy The First Lady accompanied President Kennedy during a trip to Dallas, Texas in late-November 1963. The couple flew from Fort Worth's Carswell Air Force Base to Dallas' Love Field on Air Force One. They were joined by Governor of Texas John Connally and his wife Nellie Connally, the First Lady of Texas. A motorcade was to take the Kennedys and Connallys to a lunch at the Trade Mart. However, shots began to ring out. Jacqueline believed the sound to be a motorcycle backfiring until hearing Governor Connally scream. Within the next few seconds, she leaned towards her husband and then reached across the back of the presidential limousine for something, which was captured on the Zapruder film. She stood by Vice President Lyndon Johnson while he took the oath of office. Johnson is written to have wanted her by his side so that the Kennedy supporters could realize the legitimacy of him succeeding the deceased president. Jacqueline initially had reservations about going along with the swearing in but was convinced that she owed it to her husband. After President Kennedy's death that day, she took an active role in planning his funeral and withdrew from the public eye apart from a brief appearance at a ceremony honoring Clint Hill, who had risked his life attempting to shield her and the President by climbing aboard the limousine. The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. Jacqueline cared little for the investigation, believing it would not bring back her husband and that he would stay dead regardless. There was some debate among the Warren Commission as to whether or not she would be interviewed. She eventually was, though in the privacy of her own home. Kennedy believed her future had died with her husband. In August 2011, it was reported by Fox News that tapes were being released which Kennedy admitted she believed Lyndon B. Johnson responsible for the death of President Kennedy. It was also reported she had an affair with actor William Holden in retaliation for her husband's cheating.Fox News reports on tapes Letters have been disclosed in which Jacqueline wrote that she would have preferred dying to losing her husband. Life following the Kennedy assassination Kennedy lived in the White House for two weeks following the assassination. She was telephoned on December 7, 1963 by President Johnson, who urged her to return to the White House. She did, but not during his administration. When she made her return it was in February 1971 alongside her children to view the official portraits of President Kennedy and herself. This was during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Kennedy wrote to him and his wife, First Lady Pat Nixon, expressing her happiness in having come and said that one of the days she had most dreaded had turned out the opposite way.JFK Jr. visited White House at invitation of Nixon, Reagan In January 1964, Kennedy began writing to Harold Macmillan to tell him how much her husband loved him. However, she proceeded to delve into her own personal sadness and discussed in the writing how much she had felt the world was unfair. Kennedy had her Secret Service drivers to arrange trips where she would never glimpse or see the White House again. Beginning in April 1964 and lasting for several months afterwards, Jacqueline received tennis lessons from Reverend Richard McSorley at the Virginia home of brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy while McSorley also comforted her over the death of her husband. On March 25, 1965, President Johnson telephoned her right after she arrived in Hobe Sound, Florida.Leaming, p. 192. In May 1964, she was featured in Life magazine. Throughout the year, she worked extensively on the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. She appeared in a video created specifically for the library, recounting her husband's presidency and assuring viewers that the library was what he would have wanted. Jacqueline joined Queen Elizabeth at Runnymede, England in 1965 to dedicate the United Kingdom's official memorial to President Kennedy. In May 2014, letters Kennedy had sent to Reverend Joseph Leonard were headed for auction until the Kennedy family objected to their disclosure. They were published by a number of sources, but were eventually returned to the ownership of the Kennedy family, reportedly under daughter Caroline's direction.The anguish of Jackie Kennedy (Opinion) In the letters, Jacqueline voiced critical comments about her mother-in-law Rose Kennedy, saying "I don’t think Jack’s mother is too bright" and her anguish over the assassination, stating "I am so bitter about God."Letters stating opinion on Rose Kennedy and anguish Relationship with Robert F. Kennedy , who she developed a close relationship with following the death of her husband.|thumb]] After the assassination of President Kennedy, Jacqueline's relationship with Robert F. Kennedy developed as well. He had been there for her when she lost her first child Arabella, as opposed to John F. Kennedy.Hersh, p. 86.Hersh, p. 85. This was noted as the first time she had seen his softer side. She observed him to be the least like his father out of the Kennedy brothers.Thomas, p. 91. She supported his run for Senator from New York, convincing him to remain in politics and allowed her son John Jr. to be used in advertising for support of his campaign. Robert returned interest, being attentive to her though his duties as Attorney General and soon after, Senator of New York began to take away from his attention to Jacqueline. Jacqueline also recommended to RFK that he read Greek writing, specifically from Aeschylus and Sophocles. RFK followed the advice and quoted Aeschylus during his address in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., publicly evidencing that she influenced him.Robert F. Kennedy's April 4, 1968 address on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination Various commentators have written of the intimacy of the relationship, Donald Spoto writing that RFK gave her attention after her husband's assassination that subsided due to his other responsibilities.Spoto, pp. 239-240. There was reportedly some meddling in their relationship by Kennedy's wife Ethel, which may have contributed in the two becoming distant as time went on, though the two both shared a desire for RFK's best interest."Ethel to Jackie: Get Real" New York Magazine. August 15, 1994. Johnson administration Kennedy was treated with care by the Johnsons. President Johnson regularly telephoned her and gave her a surprise visit in 1964, the first full year of his presidency. In a phone conversation between the pair that was recorded, President Johnson demonstrated affection toward her, Jacqueline reciprocating a warmth demeanor. He candidly invited her back to the White House and asked about her children. President Johnson spoke of interest in appointing her to an ambassadorship early in his administration, though she turned down these proposals. Lady Bird Johnson renamed the East Garden after her. Though Jacqueline voiced her gratitude toward the act, she declined coming to the ceremony for the event, not wanting to visit the White House again. Various members of her family attended in her place. Beforehand, Jacqueline had worked closely with Lady Bird to ensure a smooth transitional period, Lady Bird being aware that she would never be like Jacqueline though would face comparisons nonetheless. Manchester dispute Jacqueline commissioned historian William Manchester in the early part of 1964 to write an account of the JFK assassination. Manchester had a background with her husband, having genuine respect for the late president and an agreement was made that both Jacqueline and Robert Kennedy would read the manuscript before it were to be published. When Manchester finished the manuscript, both Jacqueline and Robert refused to read it and instead turned it over to a group of historians which included Ed Guthman, Richard N. Goodwin and John Seigenthaler as well as Jacqueline's secretary Pam Turnure. Jacqueline personally believed the proceeds should have gone to the Kennedy Library. Jacqueline is known to have participated in the book's production by sitting down for interviews with Manchester, the likes of which have been sealed from the public until 2067. Harper & Row published the finished version of the work, The Death of a President, in the spring of 1967. The affair was written to have shown the lengths to which Jacqueline and the Kennedy family would go to in order to protect the legacy of President Kennedy. RFK presidential campaign When Robert Kennedy contemplated a presidential campaign following the low poll numbers of President Johnson after the Tet offensive, who confined to others that he was mostly valuing of her opinion,Heymann, C. David (2009). Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story. Atria Books. p. 141. she advised him to go along with it as long as he did not try too hard to emulate her husband, telling him to be himself. Privately, however, she worried for Robert's safety, not wanting a repeat of her husband's assassination, believing that he was in danger due to more people disliking him than President Kennedy.Thomas, p. 361. She told him of her feelings but his fatalistic views seemed to make the comments have no effect.Ford, Lynne E. (2008). Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics. Facts on File. p. 273. Despite this, she campaigned for him and made several public appearances in support of his run and at one point expressed glee at the idea of the Kennedy family occupying the White House once more were he to win.Flynt, Larry; David, Ph.D. Eisenbach (2011). One Nation Under Sex: How the Private Lives of Presidents, First Ladies and Their Lovers Changed the Course of American History. St. Martin's Press. p. 216. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. Jacqueline Kennedy released a statement sympathizing with the King family. King's widow, Coretta Scott King requested to Robert F. Kennedy that Jacqueline attend the service. Though she was initially reluctant to do so, she complied and was treated with hostility by a number of mourners who felt the need to mock her presence. She spoke with Mrs. King during the service and predicted afterward that the sympathy for the King family would not last.Leaming (2014), p. 237-238. The campaign ended on June 5 when Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan and pronounced dead hours later.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9404E1D91138E134BC4D53DFB0668383679EDE New York Times article on RFK's killing Jacqueline rushed to the hospital he was recovering in and was joined by Ethel Kennedy and Ted Kennedy.http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0605.html#article Hill (1968) It has been written that Jacqueline was the one who decided to take him off life support and consented to the act by giving authorization to doctors.National Enquirer article Jacqueline attended his funeral in the days afterward.Newsweek article on RFK's death Onassis marriage She came to fear for the lives of herself and her children after the assassination of her brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968. "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." On October 20, 1968, Jacqueline married Aristotle Onassis. He was wealthy and able to provide the security and privacy she had sought for her and her children.John F. Kennedy Jr., Heir To a Formidable Dynasty Onassis lost her right to Secret Service protection and her franking privilege. She had first met Onassis during the 1950s, while she was married to John F. Kennedy, who was then serving as a United States Senator. The relationship between the two was mostly business, though the married couple did take the time to see each other. Jacqueline faced criticism for marrying a second time in part due to the nation's continued mourning over the death of President Kennedy. Throughout the exposure by the media, she was dubbed "Jackie O". Onassis tried to be a surrogate father for both Caroline and John Jr., even taking the latter on several trips where it was just the two together. However, John Jr. saw his stepfather as a joke and during the funeral services of Joseph P. Kennedy, Caroline admitted to her cousin David Kennedy that she did not like her new stepfather. Nine months into the marriage, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, nearly six years after her husband had called on Americans to put a man on the moon before any other nation. Though he did not live to see the achievement, Jacqueline did, though it is unknown where she was when the event occurred, some speculating that she may have been out of the country and in Greece instead. Similarly to how she became closer to Robert after the death of JFK, RFK's passing is believed to have brought Jacqueline and Ted Kennedy closer. Ted arranged the martial contract between her and her second husband. She wrote to him a year after RFK's killing about how her daughter Caroline had been without a role model and he made a conscious effort to become closer to her. Lastly, he became the manager of her public appearances from then on. Aristotle Onassis' health worsened following his son's death and he died on March 15, 1975. There was a dispute afterward as to just how much money Jacquline would get from becoming a widow for a second time. Later life Becoming a widow for the second time with Onassis' death, Jacqueline accepted a job offer as an editor at Viking Press. Onassis remained the subject of media attention, particularly being followed by Ron Galella. He obtained several photos her during her day-to-day activities. The year after her death, in 1995, her son John F. Kennedy, Jr. allowed Gallela to photograph him at public events. In January 2015, it was announced that personal notes written by Onassis would be auctioned in Florida, which included correspondence with Bill Hamilton and Onassis' interior designer Richard Keith Langham.USA Today article on notes Relationship with children Onassis was involved in the lives of her children, now adults. Onassis announced her daughter Caroline's engagement to Edwin Schlossberg in 1986 and was reported as having never met his father Alfred.A Kennedy Romance There are reports that she did not like Schlossberg but was forced to tolerate him once her daughter insisted that she would not be allowed to see her grandchildren if she could not tolerate their father. Onassis attended the wedding of the pair and was photographed with Ted Kennedy during the event. It has been reported that her son John F. Kennedy, Jr. married his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in 1996 because she was dominant like his mother. During her lifetime, she supported his relationship with Daryl Hannah. In February 1994, three months before her death, Onassis tried to convince her son to accompany Hannah on a trip to Switzerland.Leigh, p. 309. Political activities She was present at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. She was present when her brother-in-law Ted Kennedy announced his run for the presidency. Though she was cynical with the political process by this point, she nevertheless campaigned for him during his unsuccessful presidential campaign. Onassis had several communications with Nancy Reagan while her husband Ronald Reagan served as president. Reportedly she had a good relationship with President Reagan as well. Within the 1990s, she became a supporter of Bill Clinton. Within the 2010s, reports, normally by tabloids, surfaced that Clinton tried to imitate a relationship with Jacqueline. She gave his wife Hillary Clinton advice on raising children in the White House. Hillary Clinton would remember Jacqueline as a source of inspiration for her prior to her passing shortly into the second full year of the Clinton presidency. It was theorized that one of the main reasons for her becoming more politically active was due to her children having come of age at the height of the late 1980s, when the baby boomer generation was reaching office holding age. Death Onassis suffered a fall in November 1993 around the time of the thirtieth anniversary of her first husband's assassination. In January 1994, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Onassis died on May 19, 1994. Her son John F. Kennedy, Jr. announced her death by stating, "My mother died surrounded by her friends and her family and her books, and the people and the things that she loved. She did it in her own way, and on her own terms, and we all feel lucky for that." Personal life Secrecy Jacqueline had a desire to be private. She excluded her children from being used for public display for the most part and generally tried to avoid press attention for them. One incident of the president overruling her was while she was taking a trip, having several photographs of him and his children be taken in the meantime by professional photographers. In the aftermath of the assassination which occurred shortly after that, Jacqueline would admit that the pictures were priceless. Views on historical placement Jacqueline never seemed interested in wanting to have a legacy or be remembered by the general public, Jacqueline even stating at one point, "I want to live my life, not record it." She kept true to the phrase and aside from a few interviews she conducted after the end of the Kennedy administration, she is not shown to have produced any efforts to keep her memory preserved. Legacy Kennedy was a fashion icon during the JFK presidency, her fashion sense being desired by women not just in America, but all over the world. She is credited with starting several fashion trends. She is widely remembered for her role in the aftermath of the assassination. Some commentators have praised her for having maintained grace and solidarity even in losing her husband, others concluding that she was scrutinized unfairly in the aftermath of the killing, when she wished to maintain a life that was not involved in politics any further. Onassis has become the template for the desired political spouse, with prominent politician wives such as Melania Trump either expressing a desire to want to channel her or in the case of Michelle Obama, being compared to her. Several forms of media have even made it a point to reference Jacqueline when speaking on a spouse for an up-and-coming politician. Posthumous mentions Onassis was invoked during the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama, whose wife Michelle had comparisons to Onassis for her style. This was later debunked in an article by Katie Connolly titled "Why Michelle Obama Is Not the Next Jackie O", where she wrote, "Obama is more of a fashion populist. It's hard to imagine Kennedy, in her pillbox hat and leopard-skin coat, dishing about shopping at J.Crew."Connolly article on Onassis and Obama being different Trivia *Jacquline was 5'7 and considered tall. *Jacqueline was twelve years younger than her first husband John F. Kennedy. *Until Hillary Clinton became First Lady in January 1993, after the 1992 presidential election in which her husband Bill Clinton was elected, all of Jacqueline's successors as First Lady were older than her, a trend that persisted for twenty-nine years. References Category:Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Category:First Ladies Category:A to Z Category:Kennedy family